Mouth Breathing Is Wrecking Your Face, Energy, and Sleep—Here’s How to Fix It

Silent Sabotage: How Mouth Breathing Wrecks Health, and How Nasal Breathing Changes You

I recently posted this before-and-after photo to mark three years of sobriety.

Someone asked: how the hell did you change your actual bone structure?

I gave them a full-of-shit answer about growing a beard and getting a tan. “I got surgery.”

The reality was, it was entirely natural. And as I thought about it more, it was the result of something simple: nasal breathing.

Most people don’t think twice about how they breathe.

I was a lifetime chronic mouth breather and aggressive snorer.

I thought this was normal—my dad snored thunderously too.

However, I struggled with poor sleep, anxiety, and low energy levels.

On the surface, claiming that nasal breathing and Buteyko breathwork changed my life sounds dramatic.

But when I consider the profound improvements in my anxiety, sleep, mental clarity, physical performance, and even appearance… I think it’s a valid statement.

Over a span of months, my face even changed—a sharper jawline and better bone structure. I also had better posture and a clearer, more focused mind.

Let’s dive in to mouth vs. nasal breathing, and how to level-up in countless areas of life using specific, actionable protocols.

The Hidden Dangers of Mouth Breathing

Breathing through your mouth might seem harmless, but it has serious consequences.

• Ruins your sleep; destroys hormones - Mouth breathing leads to snoring, sleep apnea, and poor oxygenation, causing low-quality sleep. Apneas (pauses in breath, i.e., mini-suffocations) crush any attempts to produce healthy testosterone.
  

• Weakens your face structure and posture - Chronic mouth breathing alters facial development, causing a weaker jawline and poor posture.
  

• Reduces oxygen efficiency - Mouth breathing lowers CO2 tolerance, making your body less efficient at using oxygen, leading to fatigue and poor endurance.
  

• Increases stress and anxiety - Rapid, shallow mouth breathing triggers the stress response, keeping your body in a constant state of fight-or-flight. The silent killer for me. I had a baseline of high anxiety, having no idea it was (at least partially) caused by my breathing.

The Power of Nasal Breathing

The body was designed for nasal breathing. Here’s why it’s a game-changer:

• Boosts oxygen absorption - Breathing through your nose increases nitric oxide production, improving oxygen delivery to your muscles and brain.
  

• Improves sleep quality - Snoring, while common, is unhealthy. Nasal breathing keeps your airways open, preventing snoring and sleep apnea.
  

• Enhances testosterone and performance - Uninterrupted sleep leads to excellent testosterone production (according to Andy Galpin, his athlete tripled his testosterone simply by using a pillow that prevented back-sleeping, reducing apneas). Higher CO2 tolerance improves endurance, strength, and recovery.
  

• Promotes a stronger jawline and better posture - Nasal breathing encourages proper tongue posture, supporting natural facial development.

How to Stop Mouth Breathing; Is Mouth Taping Safe?

If you’ve been breathing through your mouth for years, it’s time to reprogram your body.

Here’s how to stop sleeping with your mouth open, and how to breathe through your nose throughout the day.

1. Mouth taping at night - Using a small strip of tape over your lips can train your body to keep your mouth closed while sleeping. This translates to breathing nasally during the day, without thinking about it. (Is mouth taping safe? Research suggests it is for most people, but start with a light, breathable tape.)
   

2. Nasal decongestion techniques - Clear your nose using the breath-holding
   walk (video demonstration below). Do this before bed.
   

3. Tongue posture awareness - Keep your tongue on the roof of your mouth to encourage proper breathing mechanics. As my breathwork coach said—the position your tongue makes when you say the letter “N.”
   

4. Conscious nasal breathing - Throughout the day, check if you’re breathing through your nose.

The Buteyko Method: The Missing Link for Zen-Like Calm by Default

Buteyko breathwork is a science-backed technique that improves CO2 tolerance, which in turn lowers your breath-rate at rests. It works by:

• Training your body to tolerate higher CO2 levels, reducing breathlessness.

• Eliminating chronic nasal congestion naturally. If you have naturally narrow airways like me, nasal breathing will be challenging. Buteyko expedites this improvement in airway clarity.

• Naturally creating slower breathing at rest, training, and living life—while you’re not thinking about breathing.

Try this simple Buteyko exercise:

Our goal is to sit in a reduced-oxygen state for 10-15 minutes at a time. Over time, the brain learns to tolerate CO2—and that’s where the benefits are held.

How do we accomplish this?

By reducing our rate of breathing and creating a slight “air-hunger,” then maintaining it.

How to Do Buteyko Breathwork: Step-by-Step

1. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Breathe normally.
   

2. On a (normal) exhale, hold your breath a few seconds to build a slightly uncomfortable urge to breathe (air-hunger). I emphasize, this is not a max breath hold; you should be able to inhale normally after. The hold may be 2-5 seconds.
   

3. Inhale lightly for a one seconds to slightly relieve the air-hunger. You want to refill some air, but not give yourself as much as you want, to maintain the air-hunger.
   

4. Repeat this process of roughly 1-second light inhales, 2-second light exhales, then 2-5 second holds.

Remember, we’re simply maintaining this slight desire for more air, for 10 minutes. By sitting in this state, we train our brains to be comfortable tolerating more CO2.

A breathwork coach I met told me that when she meets people considering surgery to open up their nasal passages, she recommends they try 6 weeks of Buteyko before.

Many of them decide against surgery after this period.

For optimal results, do the above exercise 2-3 times per day for 6 weeks.

Buteyko’s Profound Effects

Somewhere along my 6-week trial of Buteyko, I noticed—I felt profoundly calm, by default.

My automatic state was to be calm, collected, and relaxed.

It hit me—my whole life, I’d lived in a constant state of anxiety. It was so pervasive that I thought it was normal.

I also noticed my nasal passages were much clearer, my sleep more refreshing, and my snoring vanished (feedback from my partner plus measuring via a snoring app).

Your Transformation Starts Now

I wish I had known about this sooner. The moment I switched to nasal breathing and Buteyko breathwork, everything changed: my sleep, my energy, my focus, and even my face structure.

Nasal breathing and Buteyko will make you level-up in fitness, sleep quality, and mental health. To level up in even more areas, grab the free eBook of hard-hitting journal prompts upon subscribing to the site.

Now it’s your turn. Try nasal breathing for a week and see the difference—or do the 6-week Buteyko challenge to really transform.

I want to hear about your process—reach out and DM me on Instagram.

Your breath is your power. Use it wisely.

To your growth,